National farm advocate, Sidney resident, Marian Loch Lenzen passes at age 84

Longtime Sidney resident and prominate national farm advocate, who joined then President Jimmy Carter in the Rose Garden, Marian Ruth Loch Lenzen, a resident of the Sidney area for more than 65 years, died Monday.

Her life was spent raising her family and telling the story of Sidney to the world.

Marian was born in 1928, in Fairbury, Neb., the daughter of Kathrene Bennett and Frank T. Loch. She attended schools in Fairbury and Omaha before moving with her parents and siblings to Sidney in 1945. Marian graduated from Sidney’s St. Patrick’s Academy in 1946.

In life she married a Sidney farmer named Jerome N. Lenzen on April 19, 1947. They moved a country schoolhouse to land owned by Jerome southeast of Sidney. The schoolhouse was remodeled, and the couple moved in. Later the house was enlarged to accommodate their growing family. Their four boys came first, then three girls followed.

For 25 years, Marian devoted herself to being a farm wife, homemaker and mother. As the older children left home to attend college, she started writing on local and national issues.

Her writing resulted in national attention in 1975 when an article she wrote was published in The New York Times, for which she won acclaim.

The piece, headlined “Let N.Y.C. Go Down the Drain,” criticized New York City’s attempt to obtain a federal bailout on its huge loan obligations, while showing indifference to farmers who were then suffering serious economic setbacks. The article was reprinted in publications across the United States, and NBC sent a television crew to the Lenzen farm in Sidney for an interview.

Marian’s writing – humor pieces as well as opinion –appeared locally in The Sidney Telegraph and in numerous other publications, including The Washington Post, The Denver Post, the Omaha World-Herald and Newsday.

Marian also was a charter member of WIFE (Women Involved in Farm Economics) and served as its first national spokeswoman. She testified before the Agricultural committees of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives in 1977 and was invited to represent WIFE at the signing of the 1977 Farm Bill by President Jimmy Carter in the Rose Garden of the White House.

Marian later became an active member of the peace movement when the U.S. Defense Department indicated its intention to deploy MX missiles in western Nebraska. In the early 1980s, she attended peace rallies, testified at Air Force hearings and wrote extensively on the subject. She made several trips to Washington, D.C., to lobby against the MX program.

When Congress finally capped MX deployment at 50, down from the originally requested 200, Marian felt that she and her co-workers in the NO MX Coalition had scored a partial victory for mankind.

For all of her achievements, Marian and Jerome always considered it one of their greatest accomplishments that all seven of their children graduated from the University of Nebraska, a milestone that was recognized by Nebraska’s governor.

Marian was much interested in genealogy and will be remembered for the extensive family history she compiled and shared with her relatives. She was especially proud of her parents, who operated Frank Loch Electric for many years in a building they constructed on west Illinois Street, now occupied by Dude’s Steak House.  

Marian and Jerome lived on the farm southeast of Sidney until 2006, when they moved into town. She was happy to be closer to her bridge friends, as she was an avid player until her health failed in recent weeks.

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